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Planners suggest rerouting I-70 out of central Denver

A lobbying effort is underway to remove Interstate 70 from Denver entirely to make way for the rebirth of a depressed part of the city cut in half by the highway for decades.

Activists and others championing the rerouting of I-70 say a recent proposal by the Colorado Department of Transportation to drop the highway below ground level between Brighton and Colorado boulevards is not bold enough to save the Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods.

"CDOT is really good at laying concrete," said Thaddeus Tecza, a senior instructor emeritus of political science at the University of Colorado. "These guys are engineers, and their answer to everything is to put down a lane of concrete. What they are not really good at is planning for a community."

Tecza and Frank Sullivan — a retired biology instructor at Front Range Community College — in August presented their idea for realigning I-70 around Denver using the corridor occupied by Interstates 270 and 76.

CDOT last week nixed the plan, saying it would likely add another $3 billion to $4 billion to the $1 billion project that calls for running the highway underground under an 800-foot-long deck.

Tecza is undeterred, as are others who see the East I-70 corridor as a unique opportunity to revamp north Denver and maybe beyond.

"There are lots of things flying about right now," said Dean Foreman, who heads the urban design committee for the Denver chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

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His group has asked that the national AIA send a special team of mostly retired urban and transportation planners to Denver to study not only I-70 but also other issues, including the development of the National Western Stock Show site and the South Platte River.

"We felt it would be good opportunity to help the city," Foreman said. "We thought it would be a good time to engage in some good ideas."

Foreman's group helped get the 16th Street Mall designed and funded and backed Don Hunt — who became CDOT's executive director over a year ago — who pushed for a new alternative for I-70 in the Swansea neighborhood. That resulted in the idea to run the highway underground.

Foreman said removing I-70 altogether would be ideal but is not likely to happen, given fiscal and political realities.

"I think it would be great, but that's a hard door to open," Foreman said. "Who's going to fund it? But we want to work with Don Hunt on any possibilities."

The stretch of I-70 between Brighton and Colorado boulevards has been the target of CDOT study for nearly 10 years, with officials being especially concerned with the roadway's obsolete viaduct, which was built in 1964 and handles 150,000 vehicles a day.

But solutions have been controversial, including widening the viaduct to the north or south.

Either plan, critics say, would cut wide swaths through the Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods as well as take out Swansea Elementary and the Purina pet-food plant.

The deck idea quickly gained traction with neighbors of the viaduct when it was announced last spring. The plan calls for tearing down the viaduct, rebuilding I-70 about 30 feet below ground with five lanes in each direction and placing a deck about two blocks long over the freeway at Swansea Elementary. The so-called cap over the highway could serve as a park or open space, CDOT says.

But Tecza said the deck offers more problems than solutions. Swansea Elementary, for instance, would be only about 50 feet from the highway, which results in safety and environmental issues.

Construction, meanwhile, will make getting to the school hazardous while tearing up local roads. "It's going to be a disaster," Tecza said.

Rerouting I-70 was once considered by CDOT but discarded because of a variety of issues. But Tecza said it deserves more attention.

With I-70 removed, traffic could be funneled from the northeast, including Denver International Airport, Montbello and Green Valley Ranch, into downtown Denver along a new gateway on 46th Avenue and Brighton Boulevard.

The plan could spur economic development and be a boon for the city, Tecza said.

"Once I-70 is finished and closed, they could restart development," Tecza said. "It seems like a clearly superior alternative, and it eliminates any potential negatives to having I-70."

CDOT planners, however, say the relocation of I-70 was rejected earlier because it did not help with congestion, safety and mobility problems in the area. Also, 46th Avenue would have to be converted to a multiple-lane highway capable of handing 50,000 or more cars a day.

In addition, several local governments, including Commerce City and Adams County, have strongly objected to moving the highway, CDOT says.

Officials agree that the process of picking the preferred alternative for East I-70 could take at least two years.

"There are so many issues involved and the solutions are so complex, I think we will be studying this for a while," said state Sen. Lucia Guzman, who represents the Swansea area. "But if we didn't have a highway there, it could revitalize whole neighborhoods."

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